Expression profile of genes coding for melanoma differentiation antigens and cancer/testis antigens in metastatic lesions of human cutaneous melanoma

Vaccination-based therapy of melanoma has so far mainly focused on monovale nt approaches using either melanoma differentiation antigens or cancer/test is antigens. To study the complementarity of expression from these two fami lies of antigens recognized by T-cells, we screened 47 metastatic lesions o f cutaneous melanoma for the expression of three melanoma differentiation a ntigens and eight cancer/testis antigens using reverse transcription-polyme rase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The melanoma differentiation antigens were ex pressed in a somewhat higher percentage of lesions (94% positive for at lea st one marker) than the cancer/testis antigens (91% positive for at least o ne marker), Nearly all the melanoma metastases (98%) expressed at least one of the markers tested. One melanoma metastasis was negative for all the ma rkers. Two out of 47 lesions did not express any of the three differentiati on markers but expressed one or more of the cancer/testis antigens, indicat ing some additional potential for these antigens compared with the melanoma differentiation antigens. Therefore, we conclude that polyvalent immunothe rapy using multiple epitopes from both families of antigens might increase the eligibility of melanoma patients and the efficacy of the treatment. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.